For hard-boiled, sharp-edged noir comics for adults, you cannot go wrong SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE: THE SCORPION. Actually, you can’t go wrong with any of the three previous SMT collections, but this fourth wipes the floor with its excellent predecessors.
For those unfamiliar with the mid-’90s Vertigo series, SMT took place in the 1930s and followed the exploits of meek millionaire Wesley Dodds, who spends his nights as the Sandman (the Golden Age hero, not the Neil Gaiman Goth guy), the well-dressed, gas-masked avenger of justice who doesn’t kill his enemies but subdues them with a dose of gas that gives them terrible dreams. Despite the disguise, SMT is not a superhero comic, but an intricate detective story that both follows and subverts all the conventions.
Each collection is comprised of its own story arc, and THE SCORPION finds Dodds’ metropolitan city menaced by a serial killer taking its name from the deadly tailed arachnid. The Scorpion only kills the rich, doing so with a crack of his poison-tipped whip. As Dodds delves deeper into uncovering the Scorpion’s identity before more Mr. Moneybags fall victim, he becomes a target, as does his well-meaning but nose-in-everything girlfriend, Dian Belmont, daughter of the district attorney.
This is one of those comic books you can recommend to people who say they don’t like/read comic books, foremostly because it’s exceedingly well-written, by Matt Wagner and Steven T. Seagle. It has an actual mystery to it; if you removed Guy Davis’ art and replaced it with even the most perfunctory descriptions, it’d still work. Also the artist on the previous volumes (THE TARANTULA, THE FACE AND THE BRUTE, THE VAMP), Davis has a loose, rough style that’s perfectly suited to the subject matter – one which doesn’t shy away from situations of sex and violence when the story calls for it. And believe me, when you have a bad guy whipping his victims to death, the story indeed calls for it.
I applaud Vertigo for collecting these in trade format, especially since the title never found a large audience as a monthly series. Word is these trade paperbacks haven’t met their sales expectations, which is absolutely criminal. SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE is one of the very few titles I look forward to, and so far, THE SCORPION is the best example of why. –Rod Lott
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